Monday, January 09, 2006

Wolf Creek. I saw it at the Moonlight Cinema the other night. I only mention the venue because it appears to make an impression on people, and they say things like, "You're brave/Are you crazy?". However, I don't think the setting really made a lot of difference. The film was okay. Not super scary in any spooky way. More about how some guy is really cruel and mean, and that is quite a bad thing - how people can be so mean. The main thing I liked about the film was the young male lead's discomfort with the sexism from other men that he was expected to respond to in kind, or to not make a fuss about. It really pissed him off, and I thought that was done really well. Otherwise, it was basically an okay movie, and it makes me get phantom twinges in my mid-spine area every once in a while.

Good Night And Good Luck.This is bloody terrific. You will love it. It's so honourable and you really appreciate the precision of the language and the thinking etc. It is near perfect, the only flaw occuring in the first few moments of the film, when words appear on screen to situate the time and context, and, unforgiveably, this happens:

"...in the 1940's and 1950's..."

Shameful, I know. Indefensible. However, don't let that turn you off this fantastic, GREAT movie.

Broken Flowers. This was so-so. I liked its pace, and Bill Murray is still cool and there's a lovely warmth to the home of his neighbour, and the visit to Frances Conroy is particularly good, and I like the lack of resolution, especially the awkwardness of dealing in reality [well, the character's reality] with something that only seems likely because of the expectation of narrative resolution, so that even Bill Murray's character believes for a moment, 'huh, nothing's really happened. At all... And why should it? But, wait a second, out of nowhere, could this be...?' etc, and then all he does is freak out some kid. That was cool. But still, I think I expected it to be better. It seems quite a slight film.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Best Potter movie yet. I'm sorry, but I really enjoy the books, have a real fondness for them, etc. And all the movies so far have been EXTREME disappointments. But I was gleeful when I walked out of this one. You see, THEY'VE FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE A POTTER MOVIE. Thank fuck.

King Kong. I thought this was really good, but way too fucking long. I usually don't have a problem with length, but in this one you really felt the length of some scenes. They really dragged after a while, so even if they were action-packed, you were like, 'it's been 15 minutes. Enough already. Kill that giant beast, please. Oh god, now there's another giant beast to kill. Could you make it a quickie, please? Holy fuck, we are still on this fucking island.' There was also a laughable sub-plot involving little Jimmy and his wish to be brave and his self-sacrificing mentor dude being all, "Run Jimmy. It's not cowardly to run", etc. Which was all pretty funny. All that said, it's definitely a good movie. The three leads (Kong, Naomi Watts, and Adrien Brody) were all very appealing. The scene in which Naomi was freaking out in Kong's paw was really great - shown first from her perspective of being totally shitscared and thinking Kong meant to dash her brains out against some rock, and then zooming out to see that he was behaving quite naturally, just swinging his arms and displaying no intent to harm [big race relations/culture clash subtext here if I am not mistaken]. I actually found the film very emotionally powerful [translation: I cried], especially from the scene where Kong is finally subdued on the island onwards. You really felt the themes of dignity and pity etc, etc. Sad.